Inspiring Paladin

First strike is normally a static keyword, always on; here it is fenced to your own turn, and that fence is the whole design. The lord line hands attack-step first strike to any creature you control carrying a +1/+1 counter, but only while you are the one initiating combat. On defense, none of it applies, so this offers nothing when an opponent swings back: it exists to win the combats you start, not to survive the ones you do not. The asymmetry is the point. A 3/3 for that strikes before blockers on its own turn is already a clean aggressive body, and the counter payoff extends that edge across a pumped-up board, turning a wide array of buffed creatures into a wall of blades the moment they attack. This belongs to the counter-matters white aggro tradition, rewarding you for going wide and going tall at once, without ever letting that same board coast on a defensive advantage it did not earn.